Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story Is Digital Eclipse’s Next Interactive Documentary

One of 2023’s biggest cinema trends was the way accomplished filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Greta Gerwig, Wes Anderson, Christopher Nolan, and many more delivered some of the most creatively and commercially successful work of their careers. There was just something in the air this year, as one major artist after another took big swings that connected.

There are a lot of ways to judge a great performance. In 2023, as in every year, some of the year’s best movies were quirky, colorful, boundary-pushing challenges to the cinematic status quo, and some were low-key, emotionally intense stories, either tracking the lives of famous historical figures or just trying to evoke the pains of real life. Our list of the best performances of the year honors both extremes: outsized performances that tickled and surprised us, and realistic ones that made us forget we were watching a performance. Here are our favorites among the many great performances we saw in movies in 2023.

Few works of historical fiction have been so imaginative in premise, yet so dull and lackluster in execution. Freud’s Last Session puts a powerhouse pair of actors, Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode, in the shoes of two renowned real-life figures, Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis, as they engage in theological debate. But the resultant conversation, based on the play of the same name by Mark St. Germain (who co-wrote the screenplay with director Matthew Brown), would be laughed out of a high school philosophy club. Despite the caliber of its performers — especially Hopkins, who’s in the most fascinating phase of his career with works like The Father and One Life — Brown’s film is an utter dud.

At a quiet cemetery in eastern China, bereaved father Seakoo Wu pulls out his phone, places it on a gravestone and plays a recording of his son.

The American company Blue Origin plans to launch its rocketv Big Shepard Monday for the first time since an accident more than a year ago, as the firm founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos heads back into space. The launch window from the pad in west Texas opens at 8:30 am local time (14H30 GMT), said Blue Origin, which plans to live stream the event.

Starting from tomorrow through January 5, 2024, we’re celebrating the holiday season with a month full of activities for our PlayStation community. As part of the PlayStation Plus Season of Play, PlayStation Plus members can redeem free avatars for PS5 and PS4 consoles, join eSports tournaments, earn points on PlayStation Stars and enter a competition for your chance to win amazing prizes. Activities for those who are not PlayStation Plus members are available as well.

Guildford.Games Ltd – a not-for-profit initiative introduced to «showcase the local industry and bring the concentrated, creative talent within Guildford to the attention of the world» – has confirmed its 2024 event will kick off on 16th February 2024.

Another weekend means another batch of streaming recommendations, and there's plenty of variety to choose from this week. Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, and Mahershala Ali star in new Netflix thriller Leave the World Behind, while Todd Haynes' May December, which is already generating Oscar buzz for actor Charles Melton, has made its way to the UK via Sky Cinema. If you're in the mood for something a little more festive and lighthearted, try animated movie Merry Little Batman or Christmas rom-com Your Christmas or Mine 2, both on Prime Video.

A first look at The Last of Us star Pedro Pascal's new movie Freaky Tales has been released.

If you missed The Game Awards 2023 livestream, as it was on overnight here in the UK, and are looking for a one-stop shop on what the big celebrity cameos and new game reveals were during the three-hour-plus event, we’ve got you covered.

Honk! Or should we say...walk? The developers of Untitled Goose Game, the goofy puzzler about terrorizing a small English town as a horrible goose, are back. And this time, they're making an equally quaint and silly game about taking a big walk. It's called, literally, Big Walk. And it's planned for release in 2025.

If you're into gaming history, retro collections, or both, you'll no doubt have checked out Digital Eclipse's awesome docu-games in recent years. The Making of Karateka was the studio's most recent, and the first in its new Gold Master Series — games that double as comprehensive, interactive documentaries. It's just announced the next in this series — Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story.